Trump's Cabinet Is Already Trying Way Too Hard To Inflate His Overblown Ego (That's About To Pop)

Donald Trump has started making appointments for his upcoming administration, and it's got people talking. His chief of staff appointee Susie Wiles has the Paula Deen jokes flying. Trump's new "border czar" Tom Homan is also making some people nervous about the scale of Trump's promised mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. Then there's former New York Representative Lee Zeldin, who Trump confirmed via Truth Social would be nominated to be the administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Zeldin's response to being tapped for this position was to go on Fox News and fling compliments at Trump, some of which don't seem to make that much sense. "President Trump, when he called me up, gosh, he was rattling off 15, 20 different priorities, a clear focus," Zeldin said on Fox News. "He wasn't reading off of some sheet; it's the top of his head. And if I challenged him to give me 50 more ideas of what to do with this agency to improve the economy, I'm confident he would have done that."

We have to wonder, if it was a phone call, how is it that Zeldin knew that Trump wasn't reading anything? Admittedly, it could have been a video call, but it seems like an odd thing to specify. It could have been to try and counter some of the doubts brought up during the campaign about Trump's mental fitness, and it very well could have been just about boosting his future boss's ego.

It may also have been Lee Zeldin doing his best to prove his loyalty to Donald Trump. Loyalty seems to be one of the most important factors for Trump when it comes to his second administration. And he seems to like watching people prove it; one anonymous Republican source told the BBC, "Trump loves to see people scramble and suck up."

Then there's what Donald Trump Jr. said on "Fox & Friends" about his dad's administration, which we're sure that Zeldin paid attention to. Don Jr. said he wanted to help make sure Trump was surrounded by "people who don't think that they know better than the duly elected president of the United States." So for Zeldin to be positioning himself as basically in awe of Trump's intellect is a pretty smart move for him politically.

Trump's proposed focus at the EPA is to roll back regulations related to pollution and energy as well as reducing the department's budget. This seems right up Zeldin's alley. When Zeldin was in Congress, he frequently voted against pro-environmental policies. Zeldin will need Senate confirmation for the position, but it seems clear that he knows who he really needs to impress to get the formal nomination. Only time will tell if Zeldin ever changes his tune and becomes one of the many close allies who later turned against Trump.